For any number of reasons, it is often convenient to confine cats or ferrets to cages. This is particularly true for veterinary clinics and animal boarding facilities. These commercial facilities must provide care for a number of such pets at any given time and, for the most part, use permanently installed cages. Adequate cage accommodations may not always be available and, in order to expand capacity when the need arises, it is not uncommon to use pet carriers. These pet carriers are the commonly seen "over-sized shoe boxes", with a wire door at one end and a handle on top. There are also a variety of pet containers that have been offered as playhouses. One of these is Reginald Baker's U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,536, with multiple levels and a plurality of entrance/egress apertures. Others, such as Michael Berger's U.S. Pat. No. Des. 349,783, provide a scratching post, a shelf-like perch and a glass front. Berl Rubin's U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,042 discloses a stackable play unit for animals, providing changable configurations to maintain the animal's interest.
Veterinary clinics and boarding facilities use the aforementioned pet carriers to utilize floor space efficiently and provide extra capacity because they are stackable and inexpensive. Since these carriers are intended primarily for in-transit situations, they provide only a minimum of living space and no separate relief facilities. Therefore, veterinary clinics and boarding operations use pet carriers for longer stays at the expense of some extra effort in caring for and exercising the animals.
Individual units can also be used to confine cats and ferrets in apartments and home when owners have a long weekend or extended workday. This is especially useful for pets that "break litter training" (soil the house) or tend to be destructive if left alone. This invention allows much greater freedom and less stress than a conventional four-sided pet carrier.
There is an abiding need for portable, stackable pet containers which are better adapted to confining animals such as cats and ferrets, while facilitating their care and allowing some amount of exercise. When caring for a number of pets a system for keeping track of private possessions, such as leashes, collars and toys is needed. Since an error may have grim consequences, another concern is being certain that any required medications are given to each pet. This is especially difficult to administer when there are a large number of animals, the turnover rate is high, and clients with special needs.
Caging unfamiliar animals and keeping them inside when the cage door is opened for feeding or any other reason is another aspect of caring for a large number of animals. If the cage door is small, it may be difficult to cage a reluctant animal. If the cage door is made large, the animal may slip out too easily.
Therefore, the first object of the present inventions is to provide a compact, stackable pet container in a form that is adapted to efficient use of floor space. A second object of the present invention is to provide this pet container in a form that facilitates caring for the animals. Yet a third object is that this pet container provide pleasant living quarters for the animal.